{"id":363411,"date":"2017-10-20T10:58:46","date_gmt":"2017-10-20T10:58:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=363411"},"modified":"2017-10-20T10:58:46","modified_gmt":"2017-10-20T10:58:46","slug":"malawi-another-suspected-vampire-lynched-set-ablaze","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2017\/10\/malawi-another-suspected-vampire-lynched-set-ablaze\/","title":{"rendered":"Malawi: Another ‘suspected vampire\u2019 lynched, set ablaze"},"content":{"rendered":"

A young man in Malawi suspected of vampirism or blood sucking has been beaten up, set alight and killed by a mob near Blantyre, journalist Lucy Ashton has told the BBC.<\/p>\n

He had been found by a graveyard near a main road outside the city of Blantyre and taken to a police station on Thursday.<\/p>\n

It is likely that he was suffering from a mental illness or epilepsy as he was carrying a health card and may have been returning from hospital, the journalist says.<\/p>\n

A mob who had heard about the “vampire” rumours invaded the police station and dragged him outside.<\/p>\n

His death brings the number of those killed for being suspected \u201cvampires\u201d to eight since September.<\/p>\n

Malawi is a poor country, where 90% of people live in rural areas and education is rudimentary, so the population is suggestible to rumours, Ms Ashton said.<\/p>\n

Clinical psychologist Chiwoza Bandawe, from the University of Malawi, explained further:<\/p>\n

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Given the fact that we\u2019re conservative and generally superstitious or a culture that believes in mysterious magical explanations for things then people will tend to attribute their difficulty on what they call blood suckers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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It’s almost a symbolic representation of the life, their blood, their hope being drawn out of them, being sucked out of them.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n